Equipment drawers are widely used throughout the electronics industry particularly in high density applications employing printed circuit boards on which are mounted electronic modules and components. Two configurations are commonly employed. In one configuration, the circuit boards are slid directly into the cabinet through a front opening therein, on guide rails or tracks which run orthogonal to the opening. In this configuration, the back plane of the cabinet usually contains multicontact connectors which mate with contact pins on each of the circuit boards. These connectors interconnect the boards with each other and/or with external circuitry.
In an alternate configuration, the cabinet contains a plurality of pull-out drawers which are slideably mounted in the cabinet through its front opening so that they can be opened and closed for servicing or installation of the printed circuit boards. Each drawer includes sets of opposed tracks for slideably retaining the circuit boards. These tracks in turn are disposed orthogonal to the direction of movement of the drawer when it is pushed in or pulled out of the cabinet. In such an arrangement, it is usual to have a faceplate on the front of the drawer both to protect the adjacent circuit board and in many instances to provide control functions such as lights, switches, or buttons.
In addition where a multiplicity of drawers are contained in the same cabinet, it is not unusual to have different faceplates on each of the drawers. These faceplates which have electrical interconnections from the various components mounted thereon to the rest of the electronic circuitry in the drawer, must be readily replaceable should component failure develop.